Premium

The 2024 Presidential contest conservatives want, but don’t deserve

Every year, people start looking forward to the Super Bowl, and begin wishing the matchup could actually be between the best two teams. It often doesn’t work out that way. The same is true about American presidential politics.

Joe Biden, in all likelihood, will be the presumptive Democratic nominee for 2024 for really only one reason – his party didn’t get creamed in the midterms as was expected. Had the Democrats been routed in the House and Senate races, the updated Lyndon Baines Johnson resignation letter would have been awaiting Biden on the Resolute Desk the following morning after the November 8th results. If you ask many Democrats without any recording devices running, they would love to see their party go a different direction in 2024. But officially, since Biden beat the expectations game, it’s his nomination if he wants it.

As for the Republicans, again without the use of recording devices, a growing number wish to turn the page from the party’s nominee the previous two cycles and move in a new direction. The problem is right now, there is no one representing that new direction who has actually indicated they’re getting into the race. That will change, obviously, maybe a dozen times or more, before we reach the summer. But in the meantime, if you just look at the probable candidates and the odds today, Monday, January 9th, 2023, the highest percentage chance for 2024 is a rematch of Donald Trump and Joe Biden, a race that few people on either side think is the best overall matchup this country has to offer, but is likeliest to get.

The proxy presidential race, the one that politicos of all stripes and ideologies desire the most, is a race between recently-reelected governors from the nation’s two coasts – Gavin Newsom of the left coast of California, and Ron DeSantis from the right coast of Florida. That’s a campaign that would crystallize the direction for the future of the country sought by the two parties more than anything we have seen since Reagan V. Carter in 1980.

Both governors are younger, more charismatic, and are very, very effective communicators. Both would have broad appeal with their party’s respective base, and at the same time would make a dynamic case to the political middle of the country for a chance at leading the government.

While this last week was consumed with the antics of the House Republicans and their eventual election of Speaker Kevin McCarthy, virtually all of media ignored two very different but important speeches that were given – the second inaugural speeches of Newsom and DeSantis. We should take a look at what they both said, because both speeches included the seedlings of what a national campaign stump speech would look like.

Clocking in at around 21 minutes, Newsom covered everything one would expect – his past, his accomplishments, what he intends to do this term, and what he thinks is wrong with national Republicans.

Ron DeSantis, meanwhile, delivered a more concise 16-minute address spent on issues he campaigned on, accomplishments on those issues, a healthy dose of Reaganesque optimism for the future, what he intends to do in his second term, and everything that is wrong with national Democrats running the federal government.

On their accomplishments in the first term, here’s how both expressed their successes. From DeSantis’ address:

We said we would ensure that Florida taxed lightly, regulated reasonably, and spent conservatively — and we delivered.

We promised we would enact big education reforms — and we delivered.

We said we would end judicial activism by appointing jurists who understand the proper role of a judge is to apply the law as written, not legislate from the bench — and we delivered.

We promised to usher in a new era of stewardship for Florida’s natural resources by promoting water quality and Everglades restoration efforts — and we delivered.

We said we would stand for law and order and support the men and women of law enforcement — and we delivered.

We promised to remedy deficiencies in Florida’s election administration and to hold wayward officials accountable — and we delivered.

Juxtapose that with Gavin Newsom’s crowing about his first term as governor of the Golden State:

Now, the fourth largest economy in the world.

The most venture capital and startups in America.

Leading the world in the transition to a low-carbon, green growth future.

An advanced industrial economy in biotherapeutics, genomics. Aerospace and battery storage.

High-speed internet connecting the Central Valley to the Central Coast.

Rebuilding roads from Yreka to San Ysidro.

Providing clean water from Colusa to Coachella.

A new Cal Poly in Humboldt, conveying more scientists, engineers, researchers, Nobel laureates than any other state.

Debt free college for hundreds of thousands of students…

And the largest state volunteer corps in America.

When it comes to budgets, usually a governor’s primary grade on the report card, DeSantis referred to it this way for his first term:

Florida has accumulated a record budget surplus, and we need to enact a record amount of tax relief, particularly for Florida families who are grappling with inflation.

Newsom didn’t even mention the state’s budget in his speech, and there’s a pretty good reason why. Both states are on completely opposite trajectories.

Florida at the beginning of the pandemic saw a $5.4 billion dollar shortfall in sales tax revenue because people weren’t going to Florida on vacations. Tourism was dead for the year, and it affected Florida’s bottom line. That changed as soon as DeSantis reopened the state, and today, Florida is touting a record $22 billion dollar surplus. California, meanwhile, had near-record surpluses in 2020 and 2021, largely due to tax revenue from internet sales of Silicon Valley giants, and from pandemic relief aid from the federal government. Early in 2022, the state thought the good times were going to continue as far as the eye could see, projecting another $100 billion in surplus. Except a funny thing happened. Online businesses got tired of the tax and regulation scheme of California, and realized you don’t have to technically live in Silicon Valley to make online stuff work, and began moving operations out of the state. Revenues have cratered in California, and the $100 billion dollar expected surplus is now projected to be a $25 billion dollar deficit, without anything on the horizon as a means of replacing that lost revenue. No wonder Newsom glossed over that part.

On executive management, especially in terms of handling disasters, both addressed that in very different ways. Here’s Gavin Newsom:

In the longest hours of my first term, trying to plot a course through pandemic, wildfire, mass shootings, and social unrest … I found myself looking backward, as much as I was looking forward.

Compare it to Ron DeSantis, who not only had to deal with the pandemic, but also several direct hits from hurricanes:

We said we would support the areas in Northwest Florida stricken by Hurricane Michael — and we delivered.
And when Hurricane Ian came last year, the state coordinated a massive mobilization of response personnel, facilitated the fastest power restoration on record, and even quickly rebuilt key bridges that had been wiped out by the storm. We have stood by the people of Southwest Florida and we will continue to do so in the weeks, months and years ahead.

On what 2024 looks like nationally, this is where the two came the closest to demonstrating what the tone and tenor of the dream matchup might look like: Here’s DeSantis:

The federal government has gone on an inflationary spending binge that has left our nation weaker and our citizens poorer, it has enacted pandemic restrictions and mandates — based more on ideology and politics than on sound science — and this has eroded freedom and stunted commerce.

It has recklessly facilitated open borders: making a mockery of the rule of law, allowing massive amounts of narcotics to infest our states, importing criminal aliens, and green lighting the flow of millions of illegal aliens into our country, burdening communities and taxpayers throughout the land.

It has imposed an energy policy that has crippled our nation’s domestic production, causing energy to cost more for our citizens and eroding our nation’s energy security, and, in the process, our national security.

It wields its authority through a sprawling, unaccountable and out-of-touch bureaucracy that does not act on behalf of us, but instead looms over us and imposes its will upon us.

The results of this have been predictably dismal.

This has caused many to be pessimistic about the country’s future. Some say that failure is inevitable.

Florida is proof positive that We the People are not destined for failure.

Decline is a choice. Success is attainable. And freedom is worth fighting for.

And here is Gavin Newsom’s bleaker view of the future:

Red state politicians, and the media empire behind them, selling regression as progress, oppression as freedom.

And as we know too well, there is nothing original about their demagoguery.

All across the nation, anxiety about social change has awakened long-dormant authoritarian impulses.

Calling into question what America is to become, freer and fairer … or reverting to a darker past.

Instead of finding solutions, these politicians void of any new ideas, pursuing power at any cost, prey upon our fears and paranoias.

“The struggle to be who we ought to be,” as a nation is difficult and demanding.

And that’s why we should be clear-eyed about their aims.

They’re promoting grievance and victimhood, in an attempt to erase so much of the progress you and I have witnessed in our lifetimes.

They make it harder to vote and easier to buy illegal guns.

They silence speech, fire teachers, kidnap migrants, subjugate women, attack the Special Olympics, and even demonize Mickey Mouse.

All camouflaged under a hijacking of the word “freedom.”

But what they really want is more control – intrusive government, command over your most intimate decisions – when to have a family, how you raise your kids, how you love.

While they cry freedom, they dictate the choices people are allowed to make. Fanning the flames of these exhausting culture wars. Banning abortion, banning books, banning free speech in the classroom, and in the boardroom.

They sell fear and panic when it comes to crime and immigration.

Lastly, each one offers their own version of optimism: From Newsom’s speech:

Going forward, California will continue to lead out loud, by advancing a far-reaching freedom agenda.

A full-throated answer to those demagogues of division, determined to regress and oppress.

Freedom for teachers to teach, free of litmus tests about their political party, or the person they love.

Freedom to access health care for all Californians, regardless of their immigration status.

Freedom from Big Pharma’s grip, competing head-on by manufacturing our own life-saving drugs.

Freedom to vote without intimidation, with results decided by the people, not the politicians.

The battle lines are drawn. And yes, once again, it’s time for choosing.

And finally, DeSantis’ outlook:

We embrace our founding creed that our rights are not granted by the courtesy of the State, but are endowed by the hand of the Almighty.

We reject the idea that self-government can be subcontracted out to technocratic elites who reduce human beings to mere data points.

We insist on the restoration of time-tested constitutional principles so that government of, by and for the people shall not perish from this earth.

Florida has led the way in preserving what the father of our country called the “sacred fire of liberty.”
It is the fire that burned in Independence Hall when 56 men pledged their lives, their fortunes and their sacred honor to establish a new nation conceived in liberty.

It is the fire that burned at a cemetery at Gettysburg when the nation’s first Republican president pledged to this nation a “new birth of freedom.”

It is the fire that burned among the boys who stormed the beaches of Normandy to liberate a continent and to preserve freedom for the world.

It is the fire that infused a young preacher’s dream, relayed at the steps of the Lincoln Memorial, that the Declaration of Independence said what it meant and meant what it said: all men are created equal.

It is the fire that led a resolute president to stand in Berlin and declare “tear down this wall,” staring down the communists and winning the Cold War.

In the end, 2024 will indeed be a fight for the soul of America. It will be about who we are on the world stage, what we can and cannot afford, about what our kids will be taught and who will teach them, and about whether rising crime, drugs, and invasion on the Southern Border is sustainable or not. Those issues will be what 2024 is fought about regardless of who the nominees are. But the fight over those issues and how we are to resolve them will be a lot more real and relatable to millions more Americans if the two nominees arguing the points aren’t a combined 162 years old.

Trending on HotAir Videos

Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement
Advertisement